Vinayak Razdan, Author at SearchKashmir

July 23, 2008October 12, 2020

Kashmiri Singing Girl and The Goldsmith

The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Volume 6
A Plain and Literal Translation of the Arabian Nights Entertainments
Translated and Annotated by Richard F. Burton

Section
135. The Craft and Malice of Woman
m. The Goldsmith and the Cashmere Singing-Girl

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When it was the Five Hundred and Eighty-sixth Night,

She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the
fourth Wazir had told his tale, the King turned from his purpose
to slay his son; but, on the fifth day, the damsel came in to him
hending a bowl of poison in hand, calling on Heaven for help and
buffeting her cheeks and face, and said to him, “O King, either
thou shalt do me justice and avenge me on thy son, or I will
drink up this poison-cup and die, and the sin of my blood shall
be on thy head at the Day of Doom. These thy Ministers accuse me
of malice and perfidy, but there be none in the world more
perfidious than men. Hast thou not heard the story of the
Goldsmith and the Cashmere[FN#190] singing-girl?” “What befel the
twain, O damsel?” asked the King; and she answered, saying,
“There hath come to my knowledge, O august King, a tale of the

Goldsmith and the Cashmere Singing-Girl.

There lived once, in a city of Persia a goldsmith who delighted
in women and in drinking wine. One day, being in the house of one
of his intimates, he saw painted on the wall the figure of a
lutanist, a beautiful damsel, beholder never beheld a fairer or a
more pleasant. He looked at the picture again and again,
marvelling at its beauty, and fell so desperately in love with
it, that he sickened for passion and came near to die. It chanced
that one of his friends came to visit him and sitting down by his
side, asked how he did and what ailed him, whereto the goldsmith
answered, “O my brother, that which ails me is love, and it befel
on this wise. I saw a figure of a woman painted on the house-
wall of my brother such an one and became enamoured of it.”
Hereupon the other fell to blaming him and said, “This was of thy
lack of wit; how couldst thou fall in love with a painted figure
on a wall, that can neither harm nor profit, that seeth not
neither heareth, that neither taketh nor withholdeth.” Said the
sick man, “He who painted yonder picture never could have limned
it save after the likeness of some beautiful woman.” “Haply,”
rejoined his friend, “he painted it from imagination.” “In any
case,” replied the goldsmith, “here am I dying for love of the
picture, and if there live the original thereof in the world, I
pray Allah Most High to protect my life till I see her.” When
those who were present went out, they asked for the painter of
the picture and, finding that he had travelled to another town,
wrote him a letter, complaining of their comrade’s case and
enquiring whether he had drawn the figure of his own inventive
talents or copied it from a living model; to which he replied, “I
painted it after a certain singing-girl belonging to one of the
Wazirs in the city of Cashmere in the land of Hind.” When the
goldsmith heard this, he left Persia for Cashmere-city, where he
arrived after much travail. He tarried awhile there till one day
he went and clapped up an acquaintance with a certain of the
citizens who was a druggist, a fellow of a sharp wit, keen,
crafty; and, being one even-tide in company with him, asked him
of their King and his polity; to which the other answered,
saying, “Well, our King is just and righteous in his governance,
equitable to his lieges and beneficent to his commons and
abhorreth nothing in the world save sorcerers; but, whenever a
sorcerer or sorceress falls into his hands, he casteth them into
a pit without the city and there leaveth them in hunger to die.”
Then he questioned him of the King’s Wazirs, and the druggist
told him of each Minister, his fashion and condition, till the
talk came round to the singing-girl and he told him, “She
belongeth to such a Wazir.” The goldsmith took note of the
Minister’s abiding place and waited some days, till he had
devised a device to his desire; and one night of rain and thunder
and stormy winds, he provided himself with thieves’ tackle and
repaired to the house of the Wazir who owned the damsel. Here he
hanged a rope-ladder with grappling-irons to the battlements and
climbed up to the terrace-roof of the palace. Thence he descended
to the inner court and, making his way into the Harim, found all
the slave-girls lying asleep, each on her own couch; and amongst
them reclining on a couch of alabaster and covered with a
coverlet of cloth of gold a damsel, as she were the moon rising
on a fourteenth night. At her head stood a candle of ambergris,
and at her feet another, each in a candlestick of glittering
gold, her brilliancy dimming them both; and under her pillow lay
a casket of silver, wherein were her Jewels. He raised the
coverlet and drawing near her, considered her straitly, and
behold, it was the lutanist whom he desired and of whom he was
come in quest. So he took out a knife and wounded her in the back
parts, a palpable outer wound, whereupon she awoke in terror;
but, when she saw him, she was afraid to cry out, thinking he
came to steal her goods. So she said to him, “Take the box and
what is therein, but slay me not, for I am in thy protection and
under thy safe-guard[FN#191] and my death will profit thee
nothing.” Accordingly, he took the box and went away.–And
Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her
permitted say.

When is was the Five Hundred and Eighty-seventh Night,

She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the
goldsmith had entered the Wazir’s palace he wounded the damsel
slightly in the back parts and, taking the box which contained
her jewels, wended his way. And when morning morrowed he donned
clothes after the fashion of men of learning and doctors of the
law and, taking the jewel-case went in therewith to the King of
the city, before whom he kissed the ground and said to him, “O
King, I am a devout man; withal a loyal well-wisher to thee and
come hither a pilgrim to thy court from the land of Khorasan,
attracted by the report of thy just governance and righteous
dealing with thy subjects and minded to be under thy standard. I
reached this city at the last of the day and finding the gate
locked and barred, threw me down to sleep without the walls; but,
as I lay betwixt sleep and wake, behold, I saw four women come
up; one riding on a broom-stick, another on a wine-jar, a third
on an oven-peel and a fourth on a black bitch,[FN#192] and I knew
that they were witches making for thy city. One of them came up
to me and kicked me with her foot and beat me with a fox’s tail
she had in her hand, hurting me grievously, whereat I was wroth
and smote her with a knife I had with me, wounding her in the
back parts, as she turned to flee from me. When she felt the
wound, she fled before me and in her flight let drop this casket,
which I picked up and opening, found these costly jewels therein.
So do thou take it, for I have no need thereof, being a wanderer
in the mountains[FN#193] who hath rejected the world from my
heart and renounced it and all that is in it, seeking only the
face of Allah the Most High.” Then he set the casket before the
King and fared forth. The King opened the box and emptying out
all the trinkets it contained, fell to turning them over with his
hand, till he chanced upon a necklace whereof he had made gift to
the Wazir to whom the girl belonged. Seeing this, he called the
Minister in question and said to him, “This is the necklace I
gave thee?” He knew it at first sight and answered, “It is; and I
gave it to a singing girl of mine.” Quoth the King, “Fetch that
girl to me forthwith.” So he fetched her to him, and he said,
“Uncover her back parts and see if there be a wound therein or
no.” The Wazir accordingly bared her backside and finding a
knife-wound there, said, “Yes, O my lord, there is a wound.” Then
said the King, “This is the witch of whom the devotee told me,
and there can be no doubt of it,” and bade cast her into the
witches’ well. So they carried her thither at once. As soon as it
was night and the goldsmith knew that his plot had succeeded, he
repaired to the pit, taking with him a purse of a thousand
dinars, and, entering into converse with the warder, sat talking
with him till a third part of the night was passed, when he
broached the matter to him, saying, “Know, O my brother, that
this girl is innocent of that they lay to her charge and that it
was I brought this calamity upon her.” Then he told him the whole
story, first and last, adding, “Take, O my brother, this purse of
a thousand dinars and give me the damsel, that I may carry her to
my own land, for these gold pieces will profit thee more than
keeping her in prison; moreover Allah will requite thee for us,
and we too will both offer up prayers for thy prosperity and
safety.” When the warder heard this story, he marvelled with
exceeding marvel at that device and its success; then taking the
money, he delivered the girl to the goldsmith, conditioning that
he should not abide one hour with her in the city. Thereupon the
goldsmith took the girl and fared on with her, without ceasing,
till he reached his own country and so he won his wish. “See,
then, O King” (said the damsel), “the malice of men and their
wiles. Now thy Wazirs hinder thee from doing me justice on thy
son; but to-morrow we shall stand, both thou and I, before the
Just Judge, and He shall do me justice on thee, O King.” When the
King heard this, he commanded to put his son to death; but the
fifth Wazir came in to him and kissing the ground before him,
said, “O mighty King, delay and hasten not to slay thy son: speed
will oftentimes repentance breed; and I fear for thee lest thou
repent, even as did the man who never laughed for the rest of his
days.” “And how was that, O Wazir?” asked the King. Quoth he, “I
have heard tell, O King, this tale concerning

The Man who never Laughed during the Rest of his Days.

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Author’s Footnote:
[FN#190] The Kashmir people, men and women, have a very bad name
in Eastern tales, the former for treachery and the latter for
unchastity. A Persian distich says:

If folk be scarce as food in dearth ne’er let three lots come
near ye:
First Sindi, second Jat, and third a rascally Kashmeeree.

The women have fair skins and handsome features but, like all
living in that zone, Persians, Sindis, Afghans, etc., their
bosoms fall after the first child and become like udders. This is
not the case with Hindú women, Rajpúts, Maráthís, etc.

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July 23, 2008October 12, 2020

Sipping Kahwa in Kashmir

Kashmiri Kahwa is probably of Turkish origins.

“The word ‘coffee’ is a modified form of the Turkish word ‘kahveh’ which is derived from the Arabic word Kahwa (meaning: ‘exiting the spirit’).”

Did you know that Almonds are not always the main ingredient in a Kahwa?
Here’s some more related brew from an old article that appeared in The Hindu.

Okay, so what’s the relation between Turkey and Kashmir?

We must remember that Kashmir one of the important trading centre along the Silk Route. A lot more than just goods were exchanged there. Kahwa is probably the outcome of one of these exchanges.
Why do we Pandits drink this Muslim poison of choice and apparently, we enjoy it immensely ?
What type of a socio-religious mixture was brewing in Kashmir?
Found this in an old Edition of an online Kp magazine.

“ Tea:
Kashmiris must have been one of the earliest addicts to this brew in the subcontinent. Tea, as we know today was introduced by the British tea companies in India. But Kashmiris used to get their stuff long before that from China through Tibet. Later, it used to be imported from Shungla via Bombay. That is why, in Kashmir it is still called Bombay Chai. But this tea is the green untreated variety of tea. Its brew is called Kahwa. No milk is added to it. It is sweetened with sugar. Often, Dalchini (cinnamon), Elaichi (cardamom), Badam (almonds) and sometimes a little Kesar (saffron) are added to it to give taste and flavour.
The tea taken with salt and milk, is called Sheeri Chai (perhaps adaptation from Ladakh and Tibet). It is very popular among Muslims and to an extent among Hindus. Hindus however prefer Kahwa to Sheer Chai
Tea is prepared in a special vessel called Samawar. It is a pot in which tea is made by burning charcoal in the small chimney at its centre, having a seive at the bottom. The ash is collected in the space below the seive. There is a nozzled outlet for pouring the tea, hot into the cup. Russians also have a Samowar, but it slightly differs in looks. Hindus used to take tea in a bronze cup called Khos, while Muslims prefer Chinpyala, the cup made of china clay. The Samawar used by Muslims is made of copper while that used by Hindus is made of brass.
Hindus eat their food in a Thal, which earlier used to be of bronze. Muslims prefer copper bowl (with tin lining). At feasts, Muslims ( eat from a single plate and ) are served four persons in one big copper plate called Traami.”

We adapted and personalized the culture of other civilizations that crisscrossed Kashmir. Yet, we Pandits maintained an identity of our own by our unique habits and customs. As we observed, we distinguished ourselves from the Kashmiri Muslims through slight changes in our habits and age-old customs. That’s how we survived through constant adaptation.

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Ways to enjoy Kahwa:

dalcheen kahwa (cinnamon tea): Most common flavor of this brew.

noon chai (salt tea): this is same as
Sheer chai. Gets its pinkish color from baking soda ( called phul in kashmir. pherni is usually added while drinking.

zaffarn kahwa (Saffon tea): Usually gets served in tourist guest houses 🙂

damm tueth: Kahwa with lemon squashed in.

Besides these, black pepper Kahwa is thought to be good for sour throat.

July 23, 2008October 12, 2020

Kashmiri Pandits and Karnataka: Moving Back and Forth

In her latest post, titled A Saraswat Legacy, Jyotsna Kamat a researcher from Karnataka, writes about the entwined history of Saraswat Brahmins from Kashmir and the ones from Karnataka.
The interesting thing about the write up is that she not only writes about the religious ties between the two, but also writes about the cultural exchanges that took place ages ago in terms of dressing, ornaments etc.
She writes that it was the Kashmiri King Harsha, who introduced certain dresses and ornaments of Karnataka to Kashmir. In one of her earlier work, she credits king Harsha with introducing the Kashmiri people to the practice of darkening Eyelids and lashes with collyrium (kadige or anjana).
She also mentions Bilhana, the great Kashmiri poet-historian, who made Karnataka his home.

Later she moves from writing about the medieval times to relatively more recent times. She writes about Kulhana Rahuta, a Kashmiri who under Hoysalas built the first Saraswat temple in Doddagadda Valli in Hasan district in 1113 CE, a temple that still stands and receives daily puju .

Towards the end of the article, she writes

Perhaps during troubled times of early Muslim invasions in 12th and 13th centuries, several Kashmiri families must have come to the south and merged with those who had already settled in Karnataka.

The name of an immigrant Kashmiri Pandit, Sarangadeva (Sarngadeve) needs mentioning here.

“ A monumental work came to be written in 13th century AD. This was the Sangeeta Ratnakara(The Ocean of Music) penned by Sarangadeva, an emigrant from Kashmir, who became the Chief Accountant of Raja Sodhala, a Yadava king of Devgiri in South India. A work so stupendous in depth and extent is it that it is difficult to believe that it could have been scribed by the one man. The Ratnakara gives in great detail description of scales, raga, talas, musical forms, instruments, and many other subjects. Of greater significance is the fact that it is, perhaps, the first major work dealing with Northern and Southern musical systems. It is opined by many scholars…that it was during this period Indian music got bifurcated into the two systems of North [Hindustani] and South [Karnatak.]”

– Deva, An Introduction to Indian Music, p.74.

Today, a different Pandit is moving back and forth between the two lands. He journeys from Jammu to Karnataka, a Pandit working in some software firm of mighty Bengaluru. A merger of different kind is taking shape. A merger that is conspicuously oblivious of Sarangadeva.

July 23, 2008October 12, 2020

And Kashmir Left The Pandits

Voices

“Kashmir movements have had secular forces. The JKLF in Kashmir abjured any reference to Islam to begin with. But religious rhetoric overtook Kashmiriyat after a while, and the JKLF itself was overtaken by groups who wore religion on their sleeves.”

“What are you talking about here? Which secular forces have been involved with the ‘Kashmir Movement’? What Kashmiriyat are you talking about? It’s really disheartening to read these strange theories about Kashmir. Yasin Malik and Kashmiriyat! To me he is a bloody terrorist
I am a kashmiri pandit and I don’t know what that term Kashmiriyat is supposed to mean.
I would have thought that Kashmiriyat means common bond of culture, language etc between Kashmiri Pandits and Kashmiri Muslims. Where is the bond?”

Religion is and was, always the story of Kashmir. Pandits believe that because they were a Hindu minority in a Muslim land, which is why they are out.
It is all about being a minority. And maybe that’s why people want to be in majority- always. That majority becomes the identity and the security. That’s where religion comes in, it becomes the identity and a guarantee to security.

Kashmiri Pandits used to live like minorities in Kashmir. It’s as simple as that.
I blame Hindus of Gujarat for the mess in Gujarat and I blame Muslims for the mess in Kashmir. I blame inaction of the majority, when they refuse to speak up against the wrongs; that is when the fabric of society is torn, a society that is formed on nothing but trust. If onus of secularism in India is on Hindus, then in Kashmir it should be on Muslims. They have to take the blame. Can one imagine talking to a Muslim victim of Gujarat and telling him that it all had nothing to do with religion? In case of my family, the Army told us that, “We can’t guarantee your Safety”. Our Muslim neighbors told us that, “You are on the HITLIST for next week, and so you better leave.” Later these very people came looking to buy our property. They always knew about the coming wedding in the family and started to dangle the carrot. Am I supposed to feel grateful for that?

However, those were really strange times.
There was construction going on in our house just before we left Kashmir. A lot of steel construction sheets were lying piled up in the house yard. When we left, the locals stole those sheets. But, the funny thing is that an announcement was made from the local mosque that those steel sheets belongs to Pandits and have to be returned. And the people did return it. Later those sheets were used to build CRPF bunker outside/almost inside our house. The same mosques were giving calls to arm up for “Freedom Azadi”. We needed the money, so we did sell the house finally. That house was about hundred years old. We had an old stone sculpture that surfaced during the construction of that house. My folks used to worship it. It didn’t make it to the truck that made way to Jammu one early morning.Today, that place houses a big business complex. So, what’s my claim on Kashmir. I have to lay claim on those stone sculptures…ancient stone heads. Nothing else is left. I say I am from Kashmir, a Kashmir thats long gone. I don’t belong anywhere anymore. I am cynical, when I see lines like, “religious divide was never between common kashmiri people.” Then why am I out of Kashmir?
Okay, Life for Pandits in Kashmir was a lot easier as compared to the life of Muslim in Gujarat, Mumbai or in any Hindu Majority city. Relation between Pandits and Muslims in general was (and for some people still is) great. I mean we lived a good life together. Yet, here we are now, Kashmiri Pandits living a seemingly (as some would like to say) comfortable life out of Kashmir.The first step to bridge a gap would be to acknowledge the presence of gap; the things in Kashmir did not change overnight.By failing to acknowledge the gap, we too are likely to add to the mythical stories about Kashmir that one keeps reading.

It wasn’t only the Pandits who left Kashmir, Kashmir also left the Pandits.

July 23, 2008October 12, 2020

Kashmiri Pandits Launch Political Party in Jammu & Kashmir

August 16, 2007
A news missed.

Kashmiri Pandits Launch Political Party in Jammu & Kashmir

Found about it at Desicritics.org

Some background info. at Kashmiriat.org can be found about the people involved and in a way its political nature.

Kashmiri Pandits already have a lot of organizations that work to various ends and needs butI think a political party makes more sense, now. It’s almost a natural step for Kashmiri Pandits. After 17 years, Kashmiri Pandits too have become a political issue.

“We have launched a political party, the Jammu and Kashmir National Democratic Front, with the aim to fight for the honourable return and rehabilitation of Pandits in the valley and constitution of a development board for them in Jammu,”

AK Dewan, its acting coordinator told reporters . Also, according to news report

The constitution of a development board in Jammu for the community, its return to the valley, development of temple trusts and migrant camps, enhancement of relief and passage of bill dealing with their shrines are included in its agenda.

It’s going to be tough but it all seems natural given the present concern of Kashmiri Pandits. Thinking about past, planning for the present and hope for the future.

July 23, 2008October 12, 2020

Film talk about Kashmir

Someone said:

We are foolish people. when we are people of J&K, then we dont realise that tourism is our major source of income and once its lost we are in danger of sieged by poverty and unemployment but no we are surrounded by wrong notion that central govt. did not do anything for us. Sheikh Abdullah was not central govt. He was J&K’s own person and mostly he and his family members remain CM of J&K.

Someone replied:

While I agree with what you wanted to say through your post, Peace and all.
Nevertheless, I can safely say that you do not know what the problem in Kashmir is all about. You also used the word ‘self respect’. I have heard this word used a thousand times by Kashmiris when they are told about ‘Tourism and poverty and unemployment…’
Their reply: ‘what about the self-respect’ ‘Swabhiman’ and ‘Bharat ke tukdau par palna…’.
Guess we can blame Bollywood for such cheesy dialogues.

Sheikh Abdullah, the great one. Kashmir was crying when he died. You know what they did to his grave many years later. They piled shit on it and people have since desecrated it many times since. You know why. Cause he lost his peoples’ respect. People thought he sold Kashmir to India. And his Son… At first nobody took him seriously. He was a mas’khara. He went roving around town on his scooter with Shabana Azmi as Pillion rider. Then he matured to be a fulltime Joker. I have seen him on local T.V channel singing Dilip kumar song ‘Sukh ke sab saathi, Dukn me na koi, Mere Ram…’ in a temple. Talk full blown Bollywood. Who would take him seriously?

You want people to stop being paranoid. Post 1989. There are generations of people in Kashmir who grew up seeing Army on the streets with guns, cement bunkers on street corners. For them it must be common usage to say something like, ‘ Hey Kiddo! Bring me half kg meat from the shop near CRPF bunker. No! not the shop near BSF bunker… That stuff isn’t good.’
Is this normal conversation? Are these people normal?

Well, it isn’t easy being normal living under the much used term Shadow of Guns. Hearing blasts, gun shots, sirens, blackouts, bunker, fuji…. a whole lot of a new Vocab that normal people can learn. They must be seeing empty depilated houses of Pandits everyday…at night the ones without light. Maybe they think about the price it would fetch, about business and about a no good kashmiri Pandit getting richer and about building a shopping complex over it … again just business. Or maybe some feel genuinely sad looking at those houses. But, then what good is Sadness.

There must be a whole new generation of Muslims in Kashmir who wouldn’t know what a Pandit looks like. They might think I have horns, wooden hooves and a big Saffron Tilak on my head. And a whole new generation of Pandits may think that the Kashmiri Muslims are the one with horns, wooden hooves and a taqiyah.
It all becomes a one big Mobius Strip.

Having said all this. I still don’t understand why was I thrown out of Kashmir. Who is the director of this film that I can fuck? But, it’s no film. It’s life.
A film can have a perspective, a voice, an opinion, a message, a moral, or just a plain ol’story; it can offer an opinioned solution, an Ad, some song and dance, mountains and snow.
A life can only have miniaturized elements of these.
Film offers certainty and permanence where life offers none. Many people attach with so-called Movements of Liberty, rights blah blah…for the same aim : certainty and permanence.

“We live in the trenches out there. We fight. We try not to be killed, but sometimes we are. That’s all.”
~All Quiet on the Western Front

Just like this dialogue, uncertainty of life told in front of camera or in a page of a Novel is a Certain statement. It may or may not be binding in real life but to the work, it’s binding. And to the people reading or watching it. It may become binding or appear binding.
A filmmaker or a writer puts a lot on line when he goes out to state, ‘this is what I believe to be ‘certain and binding’ ’. History and people may not judge them kindly. And in a still developing Nation like India, it can at times be labeled as ‘going against the process of Nation building’. ‘Anti-National’.
So, it’s all quiet on all Fronts, watch the naach gana, occasional news, sip a cuppa Irish coffee and be glad that you are not living in the same Universe.

-A conversation that strangely( or not so strangely) took place at a Cinema Blog

July 23, 2008October 12, 2020

Nirmal Verma and Kashmir

Nirmal Verma (3rd April 1929, Shimla – 25 October 2005)

Ve Din Nirmal Verma’s first novel, was set in Prague, Czechoslavakia. He translated Crech writers Ivan Klima and Milan Kundera into Hindi long before their works were available to English readers. Nirmal Verma, together with Mohan Rakesh, Bhisham Sahni, Kamleshwar, Amarkant, Rajendra Yadav and others, started the Nai Kahani (new short story) movement in Hindi literature. His fiction translated into English include The World Elsewhere, Maya Darpan and Other Stories and The Crows of Deliverance. Nirmal Verma won the Jnanpith award in 1999, the highest literary award for Indian writers.

Not many know about his relation with Kashmir.

An impractical and incompetent person as I am in, what people call, real life, I wonder what would I have done with myself, if an alternative life of writing had not provided me a route of escape. Escape from myself into another self. It is through this ‘other’ that I have been trying to discover in my writing the extent and magnitude of my loss.

The shadow of this ‘loss’ fell on my writing from the very beginning, from the very first story itself. It was written in the memory of two sisters whose father had rented me a room to stay in Baramullah (it was before Independence and partition), when I was returning home from Srinagar after spending my first school holidays in Kashmir. The story was never published and I don’t know what happened to those sisters.

But ‘Kashmir’ followed me like a doomed metaphor. The first person who really published my first story was the senior Sanskrit student, the editor of the Hindi section of Stephanian, of St Stephen’s College, a cousin sister of my friend Razdan. As I remember her after 50 years, she was a very frail and fragile creature, brilliant in her studies. She never told me what she thought of my story. Later, after a few years, when I heard of her death, it seemed to be a ‘sign’. Early, in my writing life, I came to know the color of grief. Since I knew nothing else, between grief and nothing, I chose grief, without knowing anything about Faulkner at that early stage.

Nirmal Verma, writing about his life and work in the July 1999 issue of Gentleman magazine.

Read Nirmal Verma story called “The Lost Stream” and “A Day’s Guest” at Little Magazine.

Hear him at South Asian Writers Literary Recordings Project

July 23, 2008October 12, 2020

Kashmir Saivism

Cover of a book titled The Trika Saivism of Kashmir by Moti Lal Pandit

Kashmir Saivism also known as Trika tradition encompasses four systems of philosophy: the Pratyabhijna system, the Kula system, the Karma system, and the Spanda system.

Tantric ritual already makes its appearance in the early parts of the Rajatarangini, see for example the mentioning of måtrkacakra, devicakra, right from the earliest times of Kashmiri history; the first ones are said to have been founded by the wife of Jalauka, the alleged son of Asoka.263 But it is not clear in how far Kalhana extrapolates from the usages of his own times in ascribing some of these rites to such early periods. Tantric ritual is also mentioned later on:samaya as a ritual, samayacara 7.279-280. Kalhana, just as Ksemendra, and much earlier, Jayanta Bhatta, does not always speak favorably of Tantric adepts. Kalhana, however, does speaks respectful of Bhatta Kallana, the expounder of Siva Sutras, but he derides the Kaula gurus, probably thinking of those in his time (7.278 ff., 7.295 ff., 7.523, 7.712). Thus, he praises King Yasaskara under whose reign “the Brahman Gurus did not drink spirits while singing their chants” (6.10). This is echoed by the earlier poet, Ksemendra, in his Desopadesa 8,11-13:264

madhupåne krtabuddhih kaulakathånastajåtisamkocah

matsyasaravakahasto gurugrham åyåti diksito bhattah || 11 ||
ghatagalagalagalasabdair galapura bhairavam piban bhattah
samleksyate pravåhe lulhati ivåmbhobharåt khinnah || 12 ||
nitva nikhilam råtrim ksivo våntå savah svalidhåsyam
abhivadanaparisuddham pråtar bhatto ‘nyabhattesu || 13 ||

“Alcohol in both hands, resolved, humbled by the loss of caste due to the talk of “Kaula” (about him), with a plate full of fish in his hand, the initiated Bhatta goes to the house of his (Saiva) teacher (11). Busy with gargling sounds, the Bhatta drinks, his throat full of “Bhairava” (recitation) [or: terrible (alcohol)]; in continuity [or: at a “pond”] (alcohol) is licked up; he rolls about, as he holds heavenly water, uneasily. (12) Having spent a whole night (thus), drunken, he has vomited the liquor, his mouth licked by dogs; (but next morning,) completely cleansed, with respectful greetings, he (walks) a Bhatta among the other Bhattas.” (13)

Excerpt From-‘Brahmans of Kashmir’ by Michael Witzel

Read the PDF
* i would like to point out:“Bhatta” is a term still used by Kashmiris to refer a Kashmiri Pandit.*

July 23, 2008October 12, 2020

Adi Shankaracharya in Kashmir( Southside Story)

This is the Southern India version of the story:
In the course of his travels, Sankara reached Kashmir. Here was a temple dedicated to Sarada (sarasvati), the goddess of learning, which housed the sarvajnapitha, the Throne of Omniscience. It was a tradition for philosophers to visit the place and engage in debate. The victorious one would be allowed to ascend the sarvajnapitha. It is said that no philosopher from the southern region had ever ascended the peetha, till Sankara visited Kashmir and defeated all the others there. He then ascended the sarvajnapitha with the blessings of Goddess Sarada. (A few centuries later, Ramanuja, the teacher of Visisht Advaita, would visit the same sarvajnapitha in search of the Baudhayanavrtti. However, a variant tradition places the sarvajnapitha in the south Indian city of Kancipuram.)

July 23, 2008October 12, 2020

Kashmir: A fool’s paradise

Photograph: Gulmarg, April 2006

Azaadi Azaadi…behold Azaadi.

I can see Kashmir getting some form of independence in future but India would never just walk out of there. Kashmir would always have an Indian presence. Presently that presence, sadly, is in the form of Army but in the future, it might be in the form of Business ventures. Any young Indian or Pakistani dreaming of settling there, buying land and setting up business, can keep on smoking the pot. However, in order not to break the Indian/Pakistani hearts, we can add a clause to the once-for-all settlement tissue paper that says:
‘A non-Kashmiri can only settle in the area around Valley and that too if and only if one is above 65 years and super duper rich.’
Imagine an old and cranky Indian Punjabi and a demented Pakistani Punjabi sitting side by side around a bonfire lit in Gulmarg and fighting over a very serious subject- who caught more number of mansheer earlier in the day. Imagine a humble old Kashmiri acting as a mediator. No love lost there- only commerce. Fighting is no good for business. Valley would be like Florida of the east with lazy old men loitering all around, and no more just Switzerland of the east.

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nonsense!
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